Lifestyle

Getting Kids to Read, While Also Making Them Healthier

If you've ever taken a ride on that health club staple, the stationary bike, chances are you took a book or magazine along with you to peruse while you worked up a sweat. It turns out students at Ward Elementary in Winston-Salem, North Carolina are doing the same. The school's pioneering Read and Ride program lets student get some exercise while they read.

School counselor Scott Ertl launched the innovative program back in 2009. The healthy-minded educator asked friends and community members to donate their exercise bikes to the project and the school received enough bikes to fill one whole classroom.

The school shares one cycling room, which teachers are able to reserve for 15-minute intervals. The students simply bring something to read while they're pedaling away.

At a time when America's childhood obesity rates are still sky-high, incorporating some exercise into the school day (where kids spend the bulk of their time) seems like a no-brainer. But it's also sound educational practice. A 2008 study from St. Mary's College of Maryland found that kids who move while they're learning actually retain more information. What most of us probably experienced in school — desks lined up in straight rows with attentive students facing forward and sitting quietly — doesn't match up with what we're programmed to do biologically: to move.

Even though today's more educationally progressive classroom might have desks in groups, allowing children to chat with their peers during approved collaboration times, other than brief recess and lunch breaks and physical education (if budget cuts haven't axed gym class yet) one thing hasn't changed: The kids are still sitting nearly all day, every day. Or rather, they're fidgeting and tapping their feet, trying to combat the tediousness of constantly sitting.

The program's proved beneficial for kids who used to believe reading was boring or frustrating. It turns out that what the students actually hated was sitting at a desk.

"Riding exercise bikes makes reading fun for many kids who get frustrated when they read," says Scott Ertl, who started the program told FastCoExist. "They have a way to release that frustration they feel while they ride."

The academic results the program has achieved are pretty impressive. According to the school's testing data, kids who spent the most time on two wheels reached an average of 83% proficiency in reading. In comparison, kids who weren't in the cycling room as frequently only averaged 41% proficient.

Ertl said the program has helped kids feel more confident about exercising, too. "Many students who are overweight struggle with sports and activities since they don't want to always be last or lose," Ertl said. "On exercise bikes, students are able to pace themselves and exert themselves at their own level — without anyone noticing when they slow down or take a break."

Read and Ride has since expanded to 30 classrooms across the country. The program's website has plenty of tips for how to get students cycling in your town. While recess and daily gym class definitely need to make a comeback, letting kids cycle while they fall in love with literature is a win-win all around.

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.